Paper pad clamping fixture



May 23, 1961 Filed Dec. 2, 1957 C. K. GUTH PAPER PAD CLAMPING FIXTURE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 23, 1961 c. K. GUTH PAPER PAD CLAMPING FIXTURE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 2, 1957 INVENTOR ATTORNEY 2,985,174 PAPER PAD CLAMPING FIXTURE Chester K. Guth, St. Petersburg, Fla., assignor to Oravisual Company, Inc., t. Petersburg, Fla., a corporation of Florida Filed Dec. 2, 1957, Ser. No. 700,093 9 Claims. (Cl. 129-35) This invention relates to a clamping fixture for gripping and holding a heavy stock of large paper sheets suspended against the front surface of an upright support board in position to be torn off one by one or folded back and thus separated from the stack so as to expose the next underlying sheet.

The present improvements are of special advantage in the use of pads of tearable paper sheets detachably held on a lecture or display stand as disclosed and claimed in United States Patent No. 2,638,300 owned by the assignee of the present application.

An object of the invention is supportingly to clamp and hold stacked paper display sheets so that single sheets are neatly severable from the remainder of the stack after having been marked on or exhibited to a group audience.

Another object is to provide for quick removal from an upright display board of any whole stack or pad of work sheets and replacement thereof by some stack or pad which may differ considerably therefrom in breadth or thickness.

A further object is to enable the clamping fixture to consist principally of two relatively movable, long, sturdy parts that can becomposed, if desired, of extruded lengths of metal.

A related object is to utilize such parts to form a pinless or slide-out type of hinge joint of unlimited length characterized by greater sturdiness than conventional hinge joints.

A further object is to enable the improved fixture to be mounted as a readily detachable unit on the top edge of an upstanding paper-backing support board when ganged with like holding fixtures that are readily removable, one from another.

The above and other objects of theinvention will become apparent in fuller detail from the following description of preferred constructions in which the improvements are embodied, said description having reference to the appended drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 shows a clamping fixture embodying the inven-' tion mounted deachably on the top edge of an easel supported paper-backing board against whose front face a stack or pad of paper display sheets is suspended.

Fig; 2 is a contracted perspective view of the improved clamping fixture drawn on a larger scale showing only the top margin of the support board and of a stack or pad of paper sheets backed thereby.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view. of the rear of the structure of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a view taken in vertical cross section at the location 4 -4 inFig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows. 3

Fig. 5 shows a separably ganged arrangement of plural fixtures like that of Fig. 4. v

Fig. 6 is a view like Fig. 1 showing a modified construction of fixture made of assembled sheet metal strips.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of either of the. structures of Fig. 2

her 12 is of inverted channel shape comprising in spaced 7 relation a rear wall 13 and a front wall 14 joined for ice simplicity and neat appearance by a topping cross wall 15. The walls of the casing member may be integral and, if so, the member can be made of extruded metal, its cross-sectional shape also providing a stop ledge 16 in the channel space 17. A stack or pad of paper sheets 20 can be inserted upward in the fixture to abut against ledge 16 as a guide to proper alignment of the sheets.

The cross-sectional shape of casing member 12 may also be such as to form the stationary part and receive the pivotal part of a hinge joint. As shown in the drawings hereof, the joint comprises a stationary, concave, cylindrical bearing surface 18 of more than semicircular compass but interrupted by a gap 19. Such shape of hinge part may extend throughout the length of any one of the said walls of the casing member, preferably the front wall 14.

At the mouth of the inverted channel space 17 there is pivotally mounted a rocker bar 22 comprising a downward directed tear blade 24 and presenting an upward directed spur or flange plate 23 to serve as a leverage affording device. Said blade and plate are herein shown as comprised of an integral, crosswise, bowed metal strip which'in Fig. 4 is shown to be integral also with a pivotal hinge joint part 25. Part 25 has the form a cylindrical hinge rod 'journaled in, and more than half encompassed by, the interrupted hinge bearing surface 18. The rodlike part 25 carries a fin 27 sufficiently thinner than the width of gap 19 to extend therethrough with suflicient clearance to provide play for said fin to swing crosswise of said gap. 'Tear blade 22 is carried by fin 27 which enables tear blade 22 to be swung toward and away from the rear wall 13 of easing member 12 about the axis of the hinge joint. The paper clamping lower edge of the tear blade is beveled to produce sharpness and intensity of contact pressure. A comparable result could be achieved by interchanging the aforesaid stationary and pivotal parts of the hinge joint, in which case part 25 and its fin 27 would be carried fixedly by one of the frame walls while the concave bearing surface 18 would be made a fixed portion of the rocker bar 22. It is within the scope of the invention that either of said hinge joint parts 18 or 25 may be carried by the rear wall 13 or by the cross wall 15.

As tear blade 22 swings toward rear wall 13 of the fixture, its bottom edge is forced against the front face of pad 17 all along the margin thereof. This serves to clamp the pad against the rear wall '13 of the frame strip with a firm grip and positions the depending body of the pad flat against the upright support board 26.

The tear blade 22 is forced to rock into its pad clamping position by means of any suitable bar actuator or pressure exerting fastening means such as the thrust applying screws 30, each having an actuating handle outside of channel space 17 and having threaded engagement with a bushing 31 fixedly mounted in the rear wall 13 of the casing member.

In addition to the already described features of the fixture, the. rear wall 13 of the casing member 12 is equipped with hanger brackets 32 secured fixedly thereto by fasteners 33 and having :1 depending portion off-set from the rear surface of wall 13 to hook over the top edge of the support board 26 for firmly hanging the entire fixture on the top edge of the board.

Casing member 12 further carries fixedly secured to the front surface of its front wall 14 by fasteners 35 rigid loop straps 34 of shape and size to be entered and fitted respectively by hanger brackets or tongues 32 of another fixture as a means of separably ganging together a plurality of like clamp fixtures as shown in Fig. 5. Tongues 32 are in broadside flanking relation to the external surface of the rear wall 13 of easing member 12.

Figs. 6 and 8 illustrate a modification of the construc- 3 tion in which pivotal part 38 of the hinge joint comprises a separate rod-like piece equipped wth a mounting flange 39 by means of which it is riveted or otherwise fixedly secured to a tear blade 40 of crosswise bowed:

sheet metal by fasteners 37. In Figs. 5 and 8 the interrupted cylindrical bearing surface 18 is formed on a mounting flange 41 that is a separate strip of sheet metal fixedly secured to the front wall 14 of the frame strip 12 by fasteners 42. j

The assembled constructions shown in Figs. 6 'and 8 can be resorted to if desired to avoid the greater tooling cost of extruding dies. The stop ledge 16' in Figs. 6 and 8 may consist of an angle strip made fast to the rear wall 13 of the casing member 12 by fasteners 43.

In use of the improved clamping fixture as an accessory to be mounted detachably on a paper-backing board 26 supported in upright positon by easel legs 21, the hanger brackets 32 are merely hooked over the top edge of the board as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. For permanent mounting these brackets may be fastened to the board by holding screws or the equivalent. Actuator screws 30 are then retracted sufi'iciently to provide an opening between tear blade 24 and the casing wall 13 to admit the upward insertion into said opening of the top margin of a pad or stack of paper sheets 20 until the top edges thereof abut against the stop ledge 16 in channel space 17. While thus manually held, actuator screws 30, of which there are a plurality along the extent ofwall 13, are manually tightened by means of their wing handle which thrusts on the leverage means comprising spur flange 23 in a direction to press the bottom edge of tear blade 24 tightly against the stacked paper sheets 20 which pinions the same against the front surface of rear casing wall 13. The paper sheets thus are held suspended closely against the front surface of easel board 26 available to be neatly severed one by one at the line of contact of tear blade 24 thereagainst, or may be folded upward and backward over the topof the clamping fixture to expose the next underlying sheet.

While observation of the drawings will make clear that the disposition of the weight of rocker bar 22 in relation to its pivotal support will tend naturally to swing the bar counterclockwise or in clamp opening direction when fastening screw 30 is retracted from the leverage spur 23, there can be added a spring anchored to any convenient wall, such as the rear Wall 13, of casing member 12 located above ledge 16 in the channel space 17 and arranged to push or pull resiliently on spur 23 in a clamp opening direction.

This and other additions and alterations of the exact form and arrangement of parts shown in the drawings will be understood as contemplated equivalents of the construction herein proposed wherefore the following claims are intended to be inclusive of all such additions and alterations as come within a broad interpretation of their terminology.

I claim:

1. A clamping fixture for hanging a heavy stack of large paper sheets against the front surface of an upright support board in condition to be torn off one by one comprising, a hollow elongate horizontal frame member adapted to be supported in a relatively high position on an upright paper backing support board, said member including a front wall spaced forwardly from a rear wall to define between said walls a channel space approximately as deep as it is wide opening downward at the bottom extremity of said front wall, a hinge joint near said wall extremity including a stationary part carried thereat and a complementary pivotal joint part, a swingable rocker bar united with said complementary pivotal part of said hinge joint including a paper clamping blade terminating in an approximately continuous paper tearing edge substantially lower than said bottom extremity of said front wall, a leverage affording device operatively related to said rocker bar within said channel space to 4 swing and stay said bar in paper clamping position, and a bar actuator operatively related to said leverage device comprising an actuating handle located outside of said space and thereat manually operable to control the swinging of said bar. 7

2. Afixture as defined in claim 1, in which the said stationary hinge joint part is integral with the said front frame wall and the said paper clamping blade is swingable toward and away from the said rear frame wall.

3. A fixture as defined in claim 2, in which the said rear frame wall and the said blade extend downward to a lower level than the said front wall of the frame member thereby to render visible and accessible the opening separating said blade and said rear wall receptive to a stack of papers to be clamped therebetween.

4. A fixture as defined in claim 3, together with a ledge mounted on the said rear frame wall within said channel space and above the said stack receptive opening at approximately the height level of the said hinge joint in position to arrest and align the top edges of a stack of paper sheets when inserted upward into said opening.

5. A fixture as defined in claim 1, in which the said leverage device compirses a spur rigid with the said rocker bar and projecting upward beyond the said hinge joint to a point of engagement with the said actuator in the said channel space.

6. A fixture. as defined in claim 5, in which thesaid actuator comprises a thrust screw extending through one of the said frame walls into actuating engagement with the said spur Within the said channel space.

7. A fixture as defined in claim 5, in which the said spur and the said rocker bar constitute an integral rigid strip having an arched shape in cross section.

8. A fixture as defined in claim 7, in which the said complementary pivotal part of the'said' hinge joint is integral with the said spur and the said rocker bar.

9. A fixture for hanging a heavy stack of large paper sheets against the front surface of an upright support board in position to be torn off one by one comprising, a hollow elongate horizontal frame member adapted to be supported in a relatively high position on an upright paper backing support board, said member including a front wall spaced forwardly from a rear wall to define between said walls a downward opening channel space, a circularly incomplete concave cylindrical bearing surface carried by said front wall interrupted by an axially extending gap, a cylindrical rod-like part journaled in and more than half surrounded by said bearing surface carrying a fin sufficiently thinner than the width of said'gap to extend therethrough with clearance to provide play for said fin to rock crosswise of said gap, a rocker bar including a paper clamping blade swingable toward and away from said rear frame wall by the rocking of said bar, a leverage device operatively related to said bar in said channel space at the opposite side of said rod-like part from said blade, and a bar actuator operatively related to said leverage device within said channel space having an actuating handle located outside of said space manually operable to control the rocking of said bar for clamping and releasing the stack of paper sheets.

References Cited inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS a M 1' e, 

